Story Newcastle’s hard-hitting campaign for Fresh urges smokers to ‘Put smoking behind you.’

Story Newcastle launches hard-hitting quitting campaign in its powerful Smoking Survivors series for Fresh.

The heart-breaking and lasting impact of smoking on a family left behind and the difficult day-to-day living experience of a smoking survivor are portrayed in an emotional new campaign from Story Newcastle for Fresh.

The campaign acts as an urgent call to the North East’s smokers to ‘get help to quit’ by visiting FreshQuit.co.uk – not just for themselves, but for their families as well.

Previous phases of the campaign featuring smoking survivors, Sue Mountain and Cathy Hunt, helped to motivate thousands of people to quit smoking or switch to less harmful vaping. In a survey of 770 smokers, 71% said the ads made them wish they didn’t smoke.

This phase sees wife and daughter, Debbie and Sadie, talking powerfully about Denham, who developed the lung disease COPD from smoking aged 35 and died in 2021. They discuss the devastating impact his illness had on their lives as a family and the grief of his loss. The campaign also features Tony, diagnosed with throat cancer aged 52 and who lives with the legacy of smoking after having his voice box and vocal chords removed.

The campaign runs from mid-September for 6 weeks across ITV Tyne Tees, Border and ITV VOD, as well as NE regional radio. Outdoor and digital channels include Meta and Google Display. Story Newcastle worked with Future and Co to shoot and produce the films.

James McKendrick, Client Direct at Story Newcastle said:

“The bravery of Debbie, Sadie and Tony in sharing their stories is inspiring. It was a privilege to work with them to produce this campaign. We truly hope their experiences will make a difference to the lives of smokers and their families by encouraging people to quit and improve not only their own quality of live, but that of their loved ones.”